A BOURNEMOUTH care home could be closed after being rated ‘inadequate’ in three successive inspections.

Watch: Reshad Koussa tells the Echo 'I'll wash my hands of it and go' if Highfield received a further ‘inadequate’ rating.

The Care Quality Commission (CQC) carried out inspections of Highfield Manor Care Home in July 2015 and in January and April this year and on each occasion found it was not meeting key requirements.

The home, in Branksome Wood Road, has been in special measures since the first ‘inadequate’ rating was published, and it is banned from taking on new residents.

On Tuesday next week the CQC will take the case before a tribunal at Poole Magistrates Court, which will determine what enforcement action can be taken.

If the tribunal rules that the home should be closed it could be taken on by another provider, otherwise the 20 or so current residents would have to be moved.

Read the report here

Earlier this year the home’s joint director, Reshad Koussa, told the Daily Echo he would wash his hands of it and go if Highfield received a further ‘inadequate’ rating.

“There’s no point, if you can’t do it obviously you can’t do it,” he said.

“Better to let new people take over who will do a better job.”

He and his wife Yasmin have been in the care business locally for 30 years, and Mr Koussa said problems with recruitment and poor managers were to blame for the home’s ratings, along with inspectors being “very negative”.

They also run Sheridan Care Home in Poole, which is also rated ‘inadequate’.

Highfield Manor has struggled to retain a registered manager over the past two years, and Mr Koussa appointed management consultancy firm BKR on the last day of the January inspection to oversee improvements.

The commission’s most recent inspection report found the home was failing to provide safe, effective, responsive or well-led care. However, it noted that many improvements had been made “in relation to people’s privacy and dignity and their nutrition”, and that relatives of residents said staff were “kind and caring”.

Solicitors for the home declined to comment on the tribunal.